Eliza
by Mauryn
Summary: Set Season 2. During her captivity,Katrina is introduced to a mysterious child who knows the Horseman of War as her Grandpa. Will Katrina's attachment to the child be her undoing or her salvation?
1. Chapter 1

Carrying what appeared to be a bundle of old blankets in his arms, Henry Parrish slipped in to the cottage on stealthy feet. Abraham was nowhere to be seen, and Katrina slept fitfully on a low sofa. The old man stood looking down impassively on the face of his young Mother for a moment before carefully depositing his burden by the woman's side.

The bundle of blankets stirred, and a little girl's sweet innocent face peered out from the folds of cloth. She appeared to be no more than six years old.

"Grandpa Henry? What's happening?" she asked sleepily.

"Shhhh."

Henry put a finger to the child's lips.

"Go back to sleep, Eliza. You will meet your babysitter soon enough."

"Yes, grandpa."

The little girl called Eliza smiled trustingly up at Henry and closed her eyes, falling instantly back to sleep.

Henry brushed a few strands of coppery-colored hair out of the child's face then stood up. Leaving a quick note for Katrina on the table, he left, closing the door softly behind him.

Whether from the sound of the closing door or just the disturbance of moving air near her, Katrina half opened her eyes. Feeling the warm bundle tucked in beside her, she automatically cuddled it to her chest and slept on.

Sometime later, the sound of a child's frightened wail brought Katrina awake and to her feet in an instant. She gasped, seeing a headless Abraham looming over a little girl who cowered away from him in the far corner of the room.

"Abraham, stop it!" Katrina shrieked, jumping in between the headless figure and the terrified child. "What are you doing?"

The little girl whimpered behind her, and Katrina reached back and pulled the child to her side in a protective embrace. When she looked up from the top of the child's head, Abraham again had his own head firmly on his shoulders.

"Katrina, what is this little hell spawn doing here?" Abraham demanded angrily.

"Abraham Van Brunt! Considering your own situation, you have no call to address this child that way, be she from hell or from Heaven," Katrina chastised him furiously.

The little girl buried her face against Katrina and continued to cry pitifully.

"Hush now darling," Katrina cooed, stroking the girl's fine hair with soft fingers.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"E-Eliza P-Parrish," the child hiccupped. "Are you m-my gran, Katrina? He said you were."

Abraham stormed out of the room, and Katrina shivered.

"Eliza Parrish," she repeated the child's name very slowly.

"And who is this 'he of which you speak, Little one?"

"Grandpa Henry," the child answered promptly, sounding a little more calm now that Abraham was no longer in sight.

She peered up at Katrina with tear filled blue eyes.

"Are you really his Mommy? But you're so young and pretty and Grandpa Henry is so old."

_Oh, Jeremy, whom or what have you left me with?_ Katrina fretted silently.

She led the child over to the table and picked up Henry's note:

_Good morning, Mother,_

_I trust you slept well?_

_Forgive me for being presumptuous, but since you will not be going anywhere this day, you can mind my little Eliza for a few hours until I return, can you not? She is a good girl, mostly, so should be no trouble at all._

_I am certain you will enjoy the company. I apologize if Abraham is put out by the temporary arrangements._

_I shall collect her this evening._

_Your loving son,_

_Henry_

Katrina carefully folded the note and slipped it in to a pocket.

Abraham had left them some food.

"Come and join me, Eliza," Katrina motioned and the child obediently sat in the chair next to hers. As they ate, Katrina observed the little girl, taking note of her near perfect table manners, and she pondered the great mystery of Eliza Parrish.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Later that day, henry arrived back at the carriage house. He stood just outside listening to the sound of female laughter and singing. For the briefest of seconds, his face showed a genuine smile of pure and untainted pleasure, something that had almost never happened in his life. Then, he regained control of himself and entered the room.

"Grandpa!" Eliza cried happily.

The little girl leaped up from the stool beside Katrina and flew to Henry's side. As Katrina watched anxiously, the child hugged Henry very tightly. The old man patted the child's head, but his eyes never left Katrina's face.

"I trust she was a good girl today, Mother?" Henry asked Katrina.

"She has been a little angel," Katrina responded, still watching the old man who was her son with troubled eyes.

Henry gently pried the little girl's arms from around his waist.

"Why don't you go and wait outside for a moment, my Dear. I believe Granny Katrina wishes to have a word with me in private."

Eliza pulled a face.

"Oh, grown up things again," she groaned. "Yes, Grandpa."

"And don't go running off," Henry instructed the girl as she skipped out the door.

Once the child was gone, he turned back to Katrina.

"Is there a problem, Mother?" Henry asked innocently.

"Who _is_ she, Jeremy."

"Didn't she tell you? Her name is Eliza—"

"Yes, yes, Eliza Parrish. She told me all that," Katrina cut in.

"But who is she, really? To whom does she belong, Jeremy?"

Henry put on an exaggerated hurt expression.

"If you are implying that I have somehow kidnapped the child, Mother, you are very much mistaken yet again. I can promise you that both her parents are long dead."

Katrina gave him a long searching look. _By your hand or by Abrahams perhaps?_ That look seemed to ask. Henry stood unflinching under her gaze, but offered no other explanations of the little girl's origins.

"How long have you had custody of her?" Katrina asked.

Henry thought back.

"Oh, it must be about five years now. How the time does fly by."

"Does Ichabod know of her?" Katrina asked.

Henry's face hardened in an instant, and Katrina regretted asking the question.

"And why should he need to know, Mother? He has far too many other things on his mind right now to concern himself with the daily well-being of a child. Besides, I'm hardly likely to ask him or Abigail or her delinquent sister to babysit, am I."

"I am sure if you were to ask, Ichabod would be quite willing," Katrina murmured sadly. When her son did not respond, she took that to be a firm no, and immediately dropped the subject.

"I suppose you'll be wanting me to tend her again?" Katrina inquired, trying not to sound too hopeful or excited.

Henry grinned at her.

"Well, if it's no terrible inconvenience, Mother. I know what a busy schedule you have—"

"Oh, stop it, Jeremy!" Katrina shot back at him. Her eyes blazed with suppressed anger, and her son took half a step away from her.

"For the love of God, please do not turn this child in to a tool for your bitterness and anger"

"You know my opinion about God and his so-called love," Henry declared coldly.

"But getting back on topic, yes, I would appreciate it if you could watch Eliza for me during the daytime. I have so many other things that need tending, you know. Things Eliza does not need direct involvement with."

"So I mind your Granddaughter … or whatever she is to you, meanwhile you destroy the rest of the world."

Henry shrugged.

"So melodramatic, Mother. Just consider it time well spent getting to know your own great grandchild. Eliza has such a soothing presence about her, a little angel as you put it. She can take your mind off of your own impending, um, impending troubles."

Katrina opened her mouth, but Henry was already out the door. She heard him calling to the little girl. Rushing to a window, she watched as Jeremy scooped the child up in his arms and disappeared.

"Are they gone?" Abraham's voice startled Katrina and she turned towards him, quickly closing the window although the light was now very dim.

"Yes," she sighed wearily. "And I want an explanation from you, Abraham. How could you speak to that child with such venom? How could you menace her like that?"

Abraham came to stand fully in front of his love, and Katrina was surprised to see him look ashamed.

"She is a lovely little thing," Abraham mused almost to himself. "I always hoped our own daughters would be as lovely as that child."

"That is not an answer, Abraham," Katrina demanded stubbornly.

The Horsemen of death shrugged.

"I wasn't trying to menace her," Abraham said sheepishly. "I … I forgot that she cannot see me. I was just trying to ask her why she had come."

"But you know her, don't you?"

Abraham shook his head a little sadly.

"No, no, I swear I really do not know the child at all, Katrina. All I know of her is that Lord Moloch gave her as a present, or a bribe, or perhaps a hostage, and your son is raising her … and that I killed her Father two centuries ago a few short hours after he had murdered his own daughter."

Katrina's eyes widened. Abraham paused dramatically, then went on,

"Yes, Katrina. A daughter who was very very much with child."


End file.
